Benefits Of Hula Hooping 2024: 8 Surprising Pros & Fun Workout Exercises

Hula hooping was considered a childish activity. However, with further research, experts have uncovered a myriad of benefits associated with regular hula hooping. Adults can use weighted hula hoops for fitness purposes. It can be a fun addition to your aerobic exercises. 

When performing hula hooping as a child, the point was to keep the hoop up for as long as possible. The only way to achieve that would be to engage your waist and stomach and move in a controlled, circular motion.

Provided you pick the right hoop for your workouts, hooping will eventually become your preferred fat burner for weight loss exercise.  

Benefits Of Hula Hooping

Improves Cardiovascular Health 

Weighted hula hooping is one of the best forms of cardiovascular exercise. It improves the oxygen flow all through your body. It keeps your lungs and heart in top condition and reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease. 

Hula hooping for approximately 15 to 30 minutes^[1] a day improves blood flow throughout your body, reduces stress levels, and enhances brain function. 

As you strive to include weighted hula hoop exercises into your workout regimen, keep in mind that it’s not necessarily effective on its own. Ensure to combine it with a healthy diet backed with other similar activities. 

If possible, check with your certified personal trainer or doctor before signing up for a hula hoop class or performing anything hula hoop-related. 

Alleviates Anxiety And Depression

Hula hooping is among the many general exercises that pump up your endorphins (feel-good neurotransmitters) and increase your sense of well-being. Its rhythmic movements trigger a sense of relaxation and deep breathing.  

Hooping offers a medium of releasing pent-up emotions of anxiety and tension by integrating repetition, breathing, and movement. It’s a healthy form of distraction and enables you to focus more and worry less. 

Whenever you find yourself in the midst of great stress, wear tight-fitting clothing such as yoga pants and start hula hooping. Make the experience more enjoyable by adding some background music and swaying in tune with the rhythm. Everything that was stressing you at that moment will slowly fade away.  

Regular weighted hula hoop workouts give you control of your thoughts and a renewed sense of purpose. Movement is a significant part of self-care regarding mental health. There are plenty of studies^[2] that link regular exercises to improved mental stability. 

Improves Cognitive Function

One of the most critical hula hoop benefits is improved cognitive function. As you zero in on hula hooping, the right hemisphere of your brain focuses on the music while the left ensures that you’re moving in line with the tempo. The coordination between the two sides of your brain provides better cognitive control and improved motor activities^[3].

Hula hooping requires consistent hip movement. This controlled motion helps to slip into a deep state of meditation, which is a change of consciousness while performing precise movements. Sustaining a hula hoop around your waist requires the combined efforts of your brain and muscles to ensure uniform motion. You also have to balance your feet to maintain posture firmly.  

You can further challenge your brain by learning to hula hoop with two weighted hoops around your waist. Teaching your body to embrace new methods of hula hooping is a sure way of impacting your neural pathways and strengthening your coordination.

Burns Calories

Did you know that you can burn calories by keeping a hula hoop moving around your waist? Weighted hula hoops provide a better way to lower your calories since they’re heavier and with more substance than the average hula hoops. Hula hooping with the weighted types offers similar outcomes to other forms of aerobic activities such as dancing (salsa dancing, belly dancing, or swing dancing). 

On average, women burn approximately 165 calories within the first 30 minutes of a hula hoop workout. On the other hand, men tend to burn at least 200 calories within a similar period. The DOHHS^[4] (Department of Health and Human Services) recommends that you perform at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week. 

Studies done by the American Council on Exercise have revealed that you can burn up to 400 calories per hour, and if you incorporate the use of your arms and weights, the number of calories burnt increases. This is roughly similar to the number of calories burned on treadmill workouts.

Strengthens Your Core Muscles

Weighted hula hoops offer an enjoyable workout experience and help improve your coordination. The more you practice, the better you will become at coordinating the movement of your hips with the direction of the hula hoop. This can improve your balance and dexterity overall.

Hula hooping has been proven^[5] to decrease abdominal fat percentage and subsequently increase abdominal and hip muscles. Maintaining a regular hula hoop workout helps establish strong muscles and keep your lower abdomen in shape. 

Hula hooping gives a great workout experience because you’re also having fun while at it. It strengthens 30 core muscles: abdominals (abs), thighs, gluteals, and lower back muscles. The well-rounded physical activity that is hula hooping is a fine way to balance and tone your abdominal muscles.

Enhances Your Balance And Posture

Once you make hula hooping a continuous part of your fitness program, you’ll notice a positive change in your balance and posture. Hula hooping strengthens your torso muscles^[5], thus helping to maintain a good posture.

The continuous rhythmic movements in a typical hula hooping session also improve your balance. Trying out different but simple styles of balance workouts and incorporating other body parts also plays a significant role in helping maintain a good posture. 

Finding the right hoop and maintaining a circular motion while hooping ensures you have a better grip on your body’s movement. It also paves the way for you to get involved in other similar exercises that ensure you achieve your desired physical form.

Reduces Body Fat

Can hula hooping slim your waist and reduce excess fat? Certainly. We’ve already established that it’s a fun physical activity that engages the entire body, including the hips. 

The continuous forward and circular movements provide a conducive environment for the effective burning of stubborn fat. 

As you use a weighted hoop, you employ your abs, waist, obliques, stomach, and hips. Involving all these muscles to maintain the very rhythmic rocking movements, you’re actively burning around seven calories per minute. 

A study^[6] was carried out in 2019 to ascertain if hula hooping burns body fat and its effectiveness in your daily life. The study found that hooping promotes a more reduced body fat percentage than walking. It further revealed that those who hula hooped more often lost a couple of inches, mainly around the waist area.

Improves General Health

The rigorous aerobic exercise that is hula hooping involves rhythmic rocking movements forward, thus offering a myriad of health benefits^[7]. 

We’ve discussed how using a weighted hula hoop provides a fun way to improve posture and balance. We further recommend this type of workout for individuals with back injuries or those looking for a fun alternative to burning stomach fat. 

You can incorporate weighted hula hooping as a warm-up to your gym sessions and include it in your post-workout sessions as well—the hoop doubles as a massaging tool that is perfect for post-workout practice. The hoop aids in massaging and relaxing different parts of your body. It makes room for blood flow to your muscles, strengthens muscles, and boosts oxygen supply throughout the body. 

This is the simplest core exercise that works your entire body, from your brain to your feet. The best part is that you can do it any time of day and enjoy so many health benefits with every session. 

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